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Topic: Segway Wheels (Read 1135 times)

Hello everyone, I'm posting here today because I am currently in the middle of a segway project, and am looking for advice or ideas for one or two of its components.

In the pictures below is the segway this far. It was designed and built by a senior design team at my university I go to (I will be returning for my sophomore year studying electrical engineering this fall) around 6 years ago. I expressed my interest in building a homemade DIY segway to one of my professors I am pretty close with, and to my surprise he told me of these left over parts and how they were getting ready to be thrown out. Thus, I was given all the parts.

This is the segway in pictures from the design project. It has two NPC T-64 motors, controlled by two OSMC motor controllers, and in their version it was controlled by an atmega32 chip. I may end up using the same chip, or use an Arduino Uno I have lying around. The steering mechanism on the scooter is custom machines twist handle located on the right side of the handle bar.

Wheels:I plan on using many of the components that were used in the original build. However, one thing I know I want to replace are the wheels and tires, as they have deteriorated over the past five or six years. The wheels originally on there were 12". I want to have bigger diameter wheels on the segway because the larger the wheel the faster it will be. Ideas:I want to have large diameter, thin wheels. Basically, this narrows my options down to bicycle wheels.I plan to have either 16" or 20" wheels, this will make the speed of the segway substantially higher than it with the 12" wheels. The problem I come to with this idea, is the mechanical and construction side of implementing this.The motors have the mounting hole configuration shown in the picture below. As you can see, a custom machined hub of some sort will be needed to be used, I assume.

When considering bike wheels, I have been considering just getting a regular bike wheel, then have a hub made, then lacing/stringing the spokes between that hub and tire. This is what Trevor Blackwell described he did with his 2nd version of his segway. http://tlb.org/#scooter2 From what I can tell this is a condensed version of his project webpage compared to back when he did it. This hub he made used to have a CAD drawing available for download, however unfortunately isn't the case anymore.So what I am asking is does anyone have any tips or information to give concerning making a hub like described, or have any design of their own, or an archived copy of Mr. Blackwells?

My other option at this point comes from a design by a senior design team from Purdue doing a segway. https://engineering.purdue.edu/ece477/Webs/S08-Grp12/pictures.html They use the plastic rimmed Skyway bike/BMX wheel, and attached them directly to the motors (which are the same as mine). While the drawings for these are posted, they would be easy to replicate. https://engineering.purdue.edu/ece477/Webs/S08-Grp12/documents.htmlThe one question I have about this design, that complicates things is how the key hub that is apart of the wheel is made and fit into it. By looking at this picture, it looks as if it is press fitted in, but I am not sure. I would be starting from a hub similar to the one above on the white wheel.

My last question, is how much would it cost getting either of these hubs machined approximately?

Ultimately, it would be much cheaper I think to just go the regular bike wheel route and "spoke" it. However, this may be a little hard, and with my inexperience would result in a wobbly wheel. While the Skyway wheel looks better and may be easier, it is going to be a lot more expensive I believe. I appreciate any feedback and suggestions regarding types of wheels, mounting techniques/designs, etc. Thanks, Logan.

Thanks for the suggestions, in all honesty I think the ones that are with it now may work. I haven't gotten it operational yet because I'm still waiting for the batteries and IMU (gyro/accelerometer) to come in. I'm really trying to engineer or find a way to use one of these big diameter thin wheels because of the speed difference, but also it will look much nicer.

I forgot to mention an alternate sort of 'hub' i found for the Skyway wheels as well.These are sold in plastic, but I am pondering the idea of having them machined. However I'm not sure how the plastic wheel itself will hold up with all the torque and tension created.